Apple Going After iPad3.com Domain Name

Apple is continuing its habit of seizing websites bearing product names Apple itself doesn't intend to use, according to recent reports. A few weeks ago we told you that they had taken steps to seize iPhone5.com, a site that hosted a small message board devoted to discussions of the new iPhone. Despite the fact that Apple likely has no intention of calling the next iPhone “iPhone 5,” they filed a petition with the World Intellectual Property Organization to seize it. The request was granted fairly quickly.

Now they're doing the same with another website. Before it launched back in March, the current generation iPad was widely expected to be named the iPad 3. That, of course, didn't happen, to the surprise and consternation of many a tech journalist. Nevertheless, according to Domain Name Wire, Apple has filed a complaint with WIPO to have control of the domain handed over to them.

The domain is currently owned by an apparent cybersquatter called Global Access. Global Access, based in the Isle of Man, has lost similar disputes with other companies in the past.

The interesting question, of course, is whether Apple will continue going after domains for product names they don't intend to use. After all, the new iPad likely marked the end of numbered iOS devices, so presumably they shouldn't feel the need to own, say, iPhone15.com or iPad37.com (it seems that everything up through iPad25.com has already been registered). Meanwhile, though Apple does own iPod.com, iPhone.com, iTunes.com, and many others, they don't actually own iPad.com. Curiously enough, they don't appear to have any intention of going after that site at the moment.